13 Mar 2011 Neighbor Cynthia recently annointed Gina with a new nickname: Bamboo. “Bamboo, reach up there and hand me that frying pan.” It’s funny and it’s stuck, for we all know what a spindly tree Gina really is. She is no competition, however, for the swamp gum trees we hiked through today in Mt. …
12 Mar 2011 Can someone please tell us – is there a banana shortage? A few days ago we bought 4 bananas at a typical Sydney grocer and they came to $9.90 ($12.88/kilo, which is practically $6/lb). These were not gargantuan bananas, just four, regular old bananas. Then today, at the chain supermarket in Hobart, …
11 Mar 2011 Miss Tilly. We might just have to sneak her back to the States yet.
10 Mar 2011 479. A prime number. I’m not a big fan of prime numbers, preferring palindromes myself. I like the effortless balance of a palindrome. The same picture moving forward as moving back. I find them soothing in a Lost sort of way, a signal that wherever I am when that palindromic number or …
09 Mar 2011 Needles. Not pine, pins and, nor knitting. The real deal pokey ones that the doctor sticks in your arm. Five of them, to be exact. Two for me and three for Gina. It seems that traveling to Vietnam dictates a bit of preventative vaccinating, namely Hepatitis A, Typhoid, and a Tetanus booster …
27 Feb to 08 Mar 2011 Command Central. Also known as Limpin’ Leigh’s house. This is where we’ve been holed-up of late, feverishly contriving and devising what it is we shall do next. It’s like dueling banjos, me on the loaner Macintosh and Gina sitting directly across, hammering away on our travel Dell. Every now …
[Author’s Note: Here I am, catching up again.] 18 to 22 February 2011 We can call it many things – fate, destiny, divine intervention, or just plain old dumb luck – that reason why we weren’t in Christchurch the afternoon of the earthquake. But in addition to any or all of those things, we can …
01 March 2011 Well that didn’t work. Us venturing out in the middle of the day, i.e., middle of the 90 degree (F) sticky heat, to cancel our mailbox at Bondi Beach. It worked, we got it canceled, but we complained with every step there and back how hot we were. I know, I know, …
22 to 24 February 2011 Emotions have a funny way of sneaking up on you. Or at least on me. This happened when Stephen, our host for our every visit to Christchurch over the past 3 months, opened the door to greet us, 24 hours after the deadly earthquake that changed his city forever. I …
28 February 2011 Absent again from our blog. More excuses … Christchurch earthquake, transiting back to Sydney, and now couch-surfing around town while we plan next steps. More detail to come but for now, our main news is that we are safe, satiated, and living out of our storage unit. Special thanks to Neighbor Cynthia …